A man’s simple gesture of giving a sunflower to a mourning widow has encouraged thousands of people to complete random acts of kindness.

Danny Wakefield was afraid he would come off “ too strong” when he bought his love interest a sunflower and decided to give it to someone else instead, he wrote in a post for Love What Matters on Facebook last night.

He took the flower to his local café with the intention of giving it to someone on the way to work, and spotted a crying woman.

“I knew in that moment she was who I was going to give the sunflower to; she was who I had to give it to,” Mr Wakefield wrote.

He approached her and offered her the flower as a gift.

Mr Wakefield said the woman then embraced him with “tears flowing, gratitude spewing”.